Met Office experts said in November that Britain would see less rain than normal in the following few months.

They even told council emergency planners there was just a 15% chance that the nation would break rainfall records over the winter.

But it turned out to be the worst weather prediction since Michael Fish famously said in October 1987 that there was no hurricane on the way.

This week it emerged that the past 90 days has seen the heaviest rainfall in over a century with 19.2in since December. And more is on the way, with forecasters warning of another band of rain due this weekend.

Huge areas were hit by more than eight weeks of flooding with parts of the south-west still underwater and thousands left with nowhere to live.

Tory MP Chris Heaton-Harris said: “The Met Office is very good at predicting weather it can see is coming, but beyond that, its track record is pitiful. Many government agencies and some government policies are dependent on Met Office predictions and so these mistakes potentially are costing us dearly.”

And environmental planner Martin Parr added: “It was a load of poppycock.

“I don’t know how they could have produced it and circulated it to emergency planners.